Back to Normality - sorta

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OK, sorry, for like the millionth time, way too slow on the updates! That just means we've been busy enjoying ourselves, does it not?

Our trip from Paris to London was fairly uneventful - as the bus on the way to Paris had gone on the train, we figured we'd be doing the same to return. But this time we got to go on the ferry - however not before Richard had the third degree from British immigration officials. I'd gone through a bit ahead, got the same questions, gave the same answers and got through fine. Richard must be a bit suspicious looking I guess.

So armed with threats from a bolshy immigration officer ('we're keeping a close eye on you, don't you DARE stay longer than you have to, next time you come here we're gonna be all over you') we settled in to enjoy a nice ferry ride across the Channel. Talk about a thousand boisterous English teenage girls and boys...golly me.

Having disembarked at Dover we for some reason had to unload the bus, carry our luggage through an empty terminal and reboard the bus. Weird. Our French driver took over an hour to remember he wasn't driving in France any more and had to give way at roundabouts - somewhat entertaining.

After a long day we arrived back at Victoria Station and muddled our way through getting the train towards Lisa and Terence. We arranged for Terence to pick us up at the station but a wee bit of miscommunication and a lack of credit on our phone saw us take a famous black cab the rest of the way - fun!

Finally we could relax back in London for a few weeks! In our first week we met our friend Julia for a delicious yum cha lunch in Chinatown - getting there was a costly exercise and we realised we might not be able to venture into town as often as we thought. We also saw Loren that day, who kindly took us through her workplace in Leicester Square, GCap Radio. It's always an eye opener seeing how other radio places work and this was no exception, with themed meeting rooms for pitching individual stations to clients, a bloody tremendous idea if you've got the money to spend.

Later in the week I also caught up with Myfi for a spot of art appreciation at the National Gallery - leaving Richard at home rejoicing in his luck at avoiding another gallery. Richard's foot, which he had tweaked in Bordeaux, was still bothering him a lot and continued to do so our whole time in England, which, along with our lack of cash, hampered our fun times somewhat. Myfi also took me to a very excellent pub and for a wander around Covent Garden and Jubilee Market.

At weekends we took trips with Lisa and Terence - the day we went to Brighton it was raining and would you believe it, it was the same day as Brighton's Gay Pride Parade. Europe is trying to tell us something. We took the obligatory walk along the pier, had some obligatory fish and chips on the beach and got some good use out of our obligatory umbrellas.

One Sunday we went for a pub lunch, roast, of course. The weather was spectacularly hot and sunny and we celebrated by loitering outside with a jug of (obligatory) Pimm's. Fantastic. It was great to meet some of Lisa and Terence's friends and get a taste of the English summer.

We weren't ignoring our important home events at this time though. We went to a pub in Croydon to watch the All Blacks play Australia, not the best of afternoons. Just before we left London we managed to catch the second (best) half of the All Blacks against South Africa, after trying three pubs which were all packed to bursting.

When we were there in May Lisa had told us she wanted to take us to a West End show. She wouldn't say which one, but did say we had seats in the front row and it would be very, very loud. We spent days conjecturing and speculating as to which show but we managed not to guess. So we were very excited when we arrived at the theatre to see Stomp, which, as it turns out, features two New Zealand performers, one of which is Paul Russell, the former drummer for Eight, Brooke Fraser, Anika Moa and more. He wasn't performing that afternoon, which was a shame, but it was a bloody good show and I highly recommend it.

Lisa also took us to Stonehenge and Bath one weekend, surprise, surprise, pouring with rain. I was excited to visit the Jane Austen Centre in Bath, but, as the others were waiting in the car and the entrance fee was somewhat prohibitive, I just had a quick look around the shop, debated buying some things and managed to leave empty handed, yay me! It was lucky really, because in another shop in Bath I stumbled across some limited edition prints of Quentin Blake illustrations for Roald Dahl stories. We bought two and hope in future to collect more, as they're only available in the UK so should be worth more in New Zealand.

While we were in London the Olympics started and because we're Olympics geeks, we were very excited at the prospect of being able to stay at home, not spend any money and watch Olympics all day. In preparation I made another trip into town to stock up on goodies at Borough Market. What a lovely place. As I was walking around I wondered whether Market Kitchen were filming that day - just before stumbling upon Tom Parker Bowles and a camera crew attempting to record a piece to camera. With my best innocent shopper face on, I made sure I elbowed my way into the background. He he. The highlight for me that day was a visit to Neal's Yard Dairy. It was all a bit intimidating but the cheese men were so helpful, friendly and generous with their samples. Plus it provided a bit of wedding inspiration...and that's all I'm going to say!

Armed with cheese, olives, fudge and other delicious goodies, we settled in for some Opening Ceremony and all the action to follow.

We'd decided we couldn't really sustain ourselves for five weeks in London, even though we didn't have major plans and weren't paying for accommodation. So we rebooked our flights home two weeks early. On our last weekend Lisa and Terence were in Sweden visiting friends so we took the opportunity to make sure we caught up with as many people as possible. On the Friday night we had dinner at Wagamama with Pip, Loren and Julia, a five year reunion of our tutorial group from our last year at AUT. First though we'd met our friend Stacey at Borough Market, following her return from a Busabout adventure of her own. After dinner we wandered down to Covent Garden, where Richard, despite his best efforts, was singled out for a starring role in a street performance by a chainsaw wielding man wearing nothing but pink lycra hotpants.

The next day we met more friends at the Southerner pub to watch the rugby. It was far too crowded so we walked to a nearby Walkabout, which was so full they weren't letting anyone in. After some discussion we took the tube North to another Walkabout, where we managed to catch the second half. It was great to see a few different friends that day, but with all the time spent on the train, tube and in their respective stations, as well as shouting to talk over all the noise of the pub and the tube, I ended up with a sore throat which has turned into a chesty, blocky cold which I still have. I call it 'tube-rculosis'.

Our final Sunday we trekked back into town to meet Toni and Brian and Myfi at a pub for lunch and another catch up.

So in our time in London we managed to visit a few towns, do the obligatory Pimm's, roast lunch, full English breakfast, West End show, rainy day, sunny day and the rest! It was a great time and we really appreciate Lisa and Terence putting us up, feeding us, running us around and taking care of us! It was wonderful to relax after so many weeks of packing up every few days and so on.

One thing we'd sworn not to do was visit a Walkabout pub. It couldn't be avoided though and we ended up going to two different ones - four if you count the two we couldn't go into, one because it was closed and the other because it was full. I guess it wasn't so bad, probably because none of the ones we visited were in Shepherd's Bush and it was always day time...that's not to say I didn't see jugs and trays full of those horrific Snake Bites going around. Yuck. And I guess if you're with friends it really doesn't matter where you are.

So just under a month after arriving back in London we prepared for the trek back to Singapore...more soon.

Photos to come!

Roho
xx

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Photos

Full English
I had bubble and squeak with mine.

Delicious Pimm's
On the one hot summery sunny day we had in England.

Proud Mayor-y
The Mayor of Brighton, standing proud with his wife at the Pride parade.

Brighton Pier
Doesn't really a-pier to be very Bright, does it?

Another Glorious Day
In sunny England.

Fush and Chups
In Brighton, during a break in the rain.

Piccadilly Circus
On our way to the surprise show.

Surprise!
It's Stomp!

Stonehenge
Windswept.

Bath
A famous curvy street.

Covent Garden
Richard before he sat down to avoid being picked on. Didn't work.

Comments

[Liz]

Stoked you've discovered Pimm's!!! Tis my fav! x